AN: Thank you NinjaFang1331, Goku275, MDM11, and Guest. Guest, while I don't regret having Natsu (who had only recently gained the dragon form) lose to Gildarts (who, in canon, may very well be the strongest person on the continent of Ishgar), I suppose that it still doesn't look too good. Don't worry, though, because his strength will be shown before the story ends.
As the effects of Ajeel's Sand World died down, Wall became able to see his destination; Kardia Cathedral. The Spriggan entered the church and found the mage producing the Jutsu Shiki barrier, along with four others guarding him.
The five Fairies reacted to Wall's presence with shock. They recovered quickly, though, and moved to protect the Jutsu Shiki user, who couldn't move while maintaining his barrier.
"Just leave him to us, Freed," Bickslow told his friend.
"Between us two of the Thunder God Tribe, Rufus, and Orga, we can take him," declared Evergreen.
"He will not forget us defeating him," added Rufus.
"So this pinhead is one of the Spriggan 12?" asked Orga, referring to Wall's unusual hairstyle. The god slayer smirked and cracked his knuckles. "I bet can take him myself."
"I see it," said Wall to himself, ignoring his opponents' boasts. "I see it all! Where you are best, and where you are worst! Yes… I see your weaknesses! Weakness Troops, come to life!"
With the Spriggan's words, three identical-looking mechanical soldiers came into existence.
"Now, go forth!" ordered Wall, causing his soldiers to attack three of the Fairies. He then turned to Orga, the only combatant he hadn't created a Weakness soldier for. "You, I'll handle myself."
The Spriggan then pulled back his coat, revealing a power source with mechanical parts shifting around it. The changes spread across his entire body, until he returned to his true form.
"What the fuck!?" exclaimed Orga in shock.
"I, Wall Eehto, am a Machias," declared Wall smugly. "You're probably too dumb to know what that means, so I'll tell you. I'm a machine lifeform with magic!"
"Hey!" shouted Orga in response to the insult, his anger overriding his confusion. The god slayer raised his hands, casting a spell. "You'll regret that once you see my magic! 120mm Black Lightning Cannon!"
A beam of god-slaying lightning shot toward the Machias. Orga grinned at his opponent's overconfidence, thinking about how even a living machine would still be vulnerable to lightning.
However, despite the Fairy's expectations, Wall didn't react with fear or surprise. He didn't even try to block or avoid the attack.
"On the contrary, I chose to fight you because of your magic," retorted Wall as black electricity flowed across his body from the point of impact. "Yes, my kind are usually weak against lightning due to our metallic composition. However, my specialty is uncovering weaknesses, and I could hardly leave my own unattended."
The Spriggan's body started to transform again, causing Orga to take a step back in fear.
"Therefore, I devised a way to convert lightning into energy I can use!" continued Wall, the power in his body building up. "Voltex Charge!"
A shockwave of energy exploded from the Spriggan's body as it finished transforming — becoming larger and less humanoid, with four tentacle-like appendages extending from his back — knocking Orga and the other Fairies off their feet.
"The more lightning I absorb… the more powerful I become!"
Orga gulped. He may have made a mistake challenging Wall.
"Memory-Make…" started Rufus while getting to his feet, recalling Natsu's fire as he prepared to recreate it. After seeing Wall absorb Orga's lightning, he had decided to finish things quickly so he could help his friend. But, before the Fairy could cast his spell, a terrible pain shot through his mind and destroyed his mental image. "Ahhhhhh!"
Rufus fell to his knees, clutching his head as Telepathy magic attacked his thoughts. In this state, he was unable to react in time as the mechanical soldier producing the mental assault punched the Fairy in the face and sent him flying back.
"Me-Memory-Make," forced out Rufus after he came to a stop. However, even as the soldier moved toward him to attack again, the telepathic interference prevented him from forming a sufficient mental image to cast a spell.
The soldier backhanded the Fairy this time, knocking Rufus onto his back. It walked up to the struggling mage's side and raised its foot, preparing to crush his head beneath its heel.
Yet, despite death staring him in the face… despite the physical and mental pain he felt… Rufus continuing trying to cast a spell.
"Memor… Memory-Make," he spat out. The Fairy worked his pain-addled brain hard, desperately trying to form and maintain a concrete image. "I refuse to give up!"
Then, a shockingly clear mental image suddenly appeared in his mind's eye.
"120mm Black Lightning Cannon!" shouted Rufus, giving form to the image before it became distorted by his suffering. A beam of black lightning shot upward, engulfing the mechanical soldier's body. By the time the spell faded, its raised leg and torso had been stripped of everything but the machine's framework, a 'skeleton' that spasmed and crackled for a few moments before falling backward.
Rufus laid there for a minute, catching his breath and enjoying the sensation of his headache receding.
"Right… I remember now…" the Fairy said to himself, recalling memories from seven years ago. "After being defeated by Warren's Telepathy… I searched for a way to counter it. Eventually, I came up with the idea… to store the mental images for my spells in advance… and convinced Mest to help set them up with his Memory Control magic."
Indeed, Rufus had convinced Mest (Doranbolt at the time) to seal away the vivid mental image of a spell, to be released when his mind was desperately trying and failing to form one. This measure had gone unused for years, though, resulting in the delay between the release condition's fulfillment and the memory's release.
"Although," mused Rufus, still panting a bit. "It is fortunate that the soldier either did not… or could not perform Voltex Charge."
Freed grimaced as he watched his friends struggle against Wall and his mechanical soldiers. The Spriggan was pummeling Orga, who had stopped using his magic to avoid making Wall stronger. Evergreen and Bickslow were getting similarly thrashed. And Rufus, though he won his fight, needed some time to recover before he could help them.
Meanwhile, Freed couldn't do anything to assist them because he had to maintain the Jutsu Shiki barrier. His blood boiled, and he desperately wished for something… anything… to happen that would change this terrible situation.
Fortunately, the Fairy's prayers were answered twofold.
"Yeah, they're a pain!" communicated Elfman via Warren's Telepathy, referring to Wall's troops. "But if there's more than one of them, then go after someone else's attacker!"
"Did you hear me!? Hey!" shouted Sting mentally, also through Warren's Telepathy. "We just cleared out the western troops!"
"That's our guild!" said Freed quietly, his voice full of relief. The Fairy released his barrier and activated another spell in its place — Dark Écriture: Absolute Shadow. "Now I can fight too!"
As his magic coated Freed's body in a dark armor, the Fairy saw his fellow members of the Thunder God Tribe switch enemies. Bickslow and Evergreen destroyed their new opponents in seconds, leaving only Wall himself.
The Spriggan in question grabbed Orga and threw him to the side, recognizing that he was no longer in a position to toy with his prey. Unfortunately for Wall, his realization came a second too late. Freed used the enhancements his spell provided to his speed and strength in order to dash to the Spriggan and rip apart his torso with his bare hands.
Wall's body fell to the ground, inactive. Bickslow and Evergreen walked over to Freed, while Rufus and Orga struggled to their feet.
"I'm impressed," Evergreen said to Freed.
"Honestly, I expected more from one of the Spriggan 12," stated Bickslow. He then looked at Freed sheepishly. "No offense."
"None taken," replied Freed with a smile. "I'd imagine his status came from his ability to counter any singular opponent, rather than pure combat prowess…"
The Fairy trailed off, his expression changing to one of horror as he looked at the Spriggan's body and realized the truth.
"Get back!" cried Freed pushing his friends away from Wall as the Machias's body began to glow. But it was too late.
"Ah hya hya hya hya!" laughed Wall.
Then, he exploded.
"Ah hya hya!" laughed Wall. The mechanical puppet he had been controlling had just self-destructed, catching all Fairies in the blast (albeit with two of them being a distance away from the epicenter of the explosion).
The Spriggan was currently on the flagship of a fleet of Alvarez ships south of Fiore, sailing toward the port town of Hargeon. Alongside him was Dimaria Yesta, another of the Spriggan 12. Neinhart (also in the Spriggan 12) was on a nearby ship, too.
"I figured that mechanical puppet wasn't gonna work out," said Wall between his laughs. This statement caught Dimaria's attention.
"Oh, my! Are you saying your puppet was defeated?"
"Yeah," answered the Machias, his laughter finally done. "Nothing short of what I predicted. What's really fun is that Ajeel got taken down! I bet he's an enemy prisoner now!"
This earned a chuckle from his comrade. "You're kidding! Oh, how pitiable he is!"
Wall laughed again, spurred on by Dimaria's words. "Ain't it a hoot!? I gotta say, Fairy Tail ain't half bad!"
"I suppose that's why the emperor sent all our forces to attack them, huh?" responded the female Spriggan. Wall wasn't listening, though.
"But it's no fun having them think we're pushovers! No fun at all, Dimaria…"
"Now, don't get ahead of yourself," cautioned Dimaria, realizing the Machias was about to act out. "We'll make landfall soon and our first task is to take control of the harbor down. If you're thinking of reducing the harbor to rubble, we're still 30 kilometers today."
"Naw," responded Wall. He faced the direction of Hargeon Town, put his hands together, and used his magic to materialize a massive energy cannon. "I'm aiming at Fairy Tail!"
"That's some 400 kilometers away. Even you can't hit it," stated Dimaria with a smirk, not actually believing her own words.
"I am the elite Machias Wall! Never underestimate me!" retorted Wall, acting offended. "Super Long Distance Anti-Material Magic Cannon!"
A massive beam of energy shot out of the Spriggan's weapon, traveling toward Fairy Tail's guild hall at an extreme speed. The two Spriggan laughed as they imagined their enemies' fearful and panicked reactions.
"Freed, I need the Jutsu Shiki barrier up again… Freed!" cried Mavis through Warren's Telepathy. The Alvarez Empire attack was approaching the guild hall rapidly.
"Freed is unconscious… Evergreen and Bickslow, too," replied Orga grimly. He and Rufus had been farthest from the source of the explosion, so they hadn't gotten as badly injured.
"What about Rufus? He saw Freed create the barrier, so he should be able to reproduce it with his Memory-Make."
"Unfortunately, I don't have the Magic Power to do that," spoke Rufus. "My fight took a lot out of me, and I cannot restore it like a dragon, god, or demon slayer."
"Distance: 700… 600…" relayed Warren fretfully. "No! It's going to be a direct hit!"
Orga growled. It was infuriating how useless he felt. The guild hall was about to be destroyed and he couldn't do anything about it. Not to mention how his magic had been less than useless against Wall, making the Spriggan stron… ger…
"That's it!" exclaimed the god slayer, earning his guildmates' attention. "Rufus, what if you copied that Spriggan's lightning absorbing technique!?"
Rufus thought about it for a moment.
"…It's possible, but it won't be perfect. Like how I cannot copy the elemental resistance of those with Slayer Magic, my body will likely be harmed by the surge of power in a way that a Machias would not."
"We're out of time!" warned Mavis. "Our only option is to try it and hope for the best!"
Rufus and Orga exchanged a look and nodded.
"Memory-Make: Voltex Charge!"
"Lightning God's Bellow!"
Orga blasted Rufus with black lightning, which the latter absorb. A scream escaped Rufus's throat, but he just gritted his teeth and continued to the next step.
"Memory-Make: Jutsu Shiki Barrier!"
The barrier that had previously appeared around Magnolia Town reappeared, just in time for the encroaching beam of energy to collide with it. Cracks formed from the point of impact, but the barrier held out until the attack faded. Then, it disappeared, and another Fairy fell unconscious in the Kardia Cathedral.
Omake
"Grr…" growled Juvia. She and Gray had been together before the attack began. They had shared a kiss (indirectly, via Gray letting her finish his half-eaten protein bar), and Gray even promised to give answer to her affections after the war was over. And yet…
"Ice-Make: Lance!" shouted Gray, attacking the mechanical soldier that had been created to counter Lucy's Celestial Spirit Magic.
…Instead of fighting the anti-Juvia soldier, he had chosen to destroy her greatest love rival's opponent!
Of course, the water mage's jealousy vanished when, after finishing off the anti-Lucy soldier, the next thing Gray did was to ask Juvia if she had taken out the anti-Gray soldier and thank her when she said yes.
AN: I've thought about it a bit, and I think I might take a small break before writing the next chapter. Not long, though… probably only an extra week.
I'm doing this because, while I have a general idea of how this final arc will go, I haven't really planned out the details all that much. I've been meaning to do it for the past two or three weeks, but I kept forgetting or putting it off. Now, I'm going to use the time I normally using for writing to map out the rest of the story.
So, I'll see you all (figuratively speaking) in two weeks or so. Until then, goodbye!